Castro seeks life in jail for dissidents

Communist-run Cuba sought unprecedented life sentences on Thursday for dissidents recently rounded up in an intense crackdown on the island's small but growing opposition movement.

Western diplomats and foreign journalists were barred from the trials that started in Havana and other cities for half of the 78 dissidents, rights activists and journalists arrested and charged with collaborating with the US.

In a swoop apparently timed by Fidel Castro to take advantage of the world's focus on Iraq, 34 independent journalists who had attended a workshop at the residence of the de facto US ambassador, James Cason, were arrested.

Waves of arrests followed, as secret police rounded up intellectuals and dissidents who staged an unprecedented challenge to Dr Castro's rule last year.

In the face of secret police harassment and death threats, the dissidents collected more than 11,000 signatures on a petition seeking a referendum on political and economic reforms.");document.write("

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Prosecutors are seeking life sentences for 12 of the dissidents and 10 to 30-year prison terms for the rest.

"The Government has never before tried so many people for their political beliefs or sought such draconian sentences," said Elizardo Sanchez, president of the non-governmental Cuban Human Rights Commission.

Diplomats from Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Canada and the US were turned away from court houses in Havana. There was no mention of the trials in Cuba's state-run media and few Cubans were aware they were taking place.

Oswaldo Paya, leader of the Varela Project, a petition for a referendum on civil liberties that has been signed by 30,000 Cubans, said more than half those detained had helped gather signatures demanding change under Cuba's one-party state.

"The Varela Project campaign for our rights will continue, even if they arrest some people or arrest me," he said outside the court.

A European diplomat said: "It is a control issue. Varela was a shock to the system, and this is a crackdown to bring things under their political control again."

The US State Department called on the international community to condemn the "kangaroo courts" and described the Cuban actions as "the most despicable act of political repression in the Americas in a decade". The European Union called for the immediate release of the prisoners.